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In what ways does the consumption of caffeine affect your health?

  1. Introduction of caffeine  

Caffeine is one of the great sources of energy that people tend to consume. Today’s society tends to rely on it because of the availability that it has for everyone and the feeling that it creates for them. The main component that makes people want to consume caffeine and has certain effects on your health is dopamine. It has created a  pattern found by multiple researchers to be helpful for your brain to process and retain information. In which can take effect to alter your mental health. Although caffeine has been found to have a positive effect, others have found that caffeine could affect your health negatively, even that there is an exceeding amount of caffeine that can affect your health negatively. 

  1. The background of caffeine

Caffeine can be found in different sources like coffee, tea, sodas, caffeine substitutes, etc. However, one of the main caffeine sources is coffee. It was founded in 1821, Ethiopia. Coffee then became a product of commerce and  transported all around the world. From there on coffee has become the “No.1 drink in the USA, according to the National Coffee Association”(Carman). As was supported by The New York Post multiple Starbucks, a coffee franchise,  are opening up all across the United States. Therefore, the commerce of caffeine expanded not only as franchise opened up but many others were doing so enabling more availability. The availability plays a role on how much people tend to consume coffee. There is coffee shops at every corner which leads white collars and teens to be the largest group that consume coffee. 

  1. Addictive and main component 

Coffee contains an estimated 50 to 65 mg of caffeine per cup which becomes relative to coffee drinkers (Gaeini).  Relatively people consume three to four cups of coffee a day. Yet, they are attracted to a certain component of coffee known as dopamine. It is a neurotransmitter that’s also found in other drugs like cocaine and amphetamines (Helschien). This makes people want to keep on consuming it often since it is addictive substance that some drugs. As it is a neurotransmitter that can stimulate the nervous central system and sends signals directly into your brain (Helschien). In which the neurotransmitter can affect your not just your brain but your health in general.

  1. Effects
  1.  Point of view statement 

Coffee could be beneficial for your health. Society has become addicted to coffee through the neurotransmitter known as dopamine to help the brain work more efficiently. The neurotransmitter that works for more than just improving your brain function but affects your health in terms of diseases and mental illness. More in depth since it retains information and pumps your blood faster enables it to prevent cardiovascular diseases. Students and white collars are the main consumers who benefit for their constant use to stay awake and long lasting memory. Yet, exceeding the three to four cups of coffee depending on your medical history could negatively affect you. There are both positive and negative effects of caffeine but it all depends on your medical records.

  1. Introduction of findings of both Negatives and Positives

Dr. Raphael Bergman , a pediatrician at Jamaica Hospital, focuses on family medicine. When he allowed me to interview him about the relationship that his patients had in relation to coffee there was a pattern. He stated that “ dopamine is what makes people start wanting more but I know that most of my patients who I’ve talked always seem surprised when I explain that it could affect their health mentally and internally”. Bergman intended this to be more on the side that it coffee has different substances of dopamine that could affect their health both negatively and positively sides to your health depending on your medical records.

  1. Pros
  1. Processing

As coffee could be beneficial for your health by improving your mental health when dopamine is acting as a neurotransmitter that affects how your body works. As Helschien, a scientist and researcher of Level 1 Diagnostics,  found that it “stimulates the central nervous system but may act as a mild antidepressant by boosting production of neurotransmitters in the brain” (Helschien). In which allows the body to begin to function properly and come into the cycle where it can benefit your mental health.

  1. Retain Information

Dopamine as it was previously established can act as a mild antidepressant. Coffee can increase “energy and potentially improve physical and mental performance by increasing the release of catecholamines (such as adrenaline) via the sympathetic nervous system”. The boost of energy causes your heart to pump the blood faster and send more oxygen to your brain, enabling it to send signals to your liver releasing sugar to your bloodstream (Helschien). Therefore, when it begins to make your brain work more efficiently, it allows for a part of your brain to enable it to work faster and retain information.

  1. Preventing Memory Loss 

The way that it allows it to retain information faster allows to preserve your memories longer. According to “studies from Johns Hopkins University now show its positive effects on strengthening memories, making them resistant to, or reducing forgetting for over 24 hours” (Helschien). In which allows to prevent memory loss diseases like dementia, alzheimer’s and parkinsons. Therefore, they enable a more efficient functionality in your brain and enables to store memories for a longer period of time. A beneficial trait of coffee that causes students to consume when studying to retain information and stay awake through all nighters. 

  1. Stress Levels

In addition, when your brain is able to work more efficiently, allowing it to reduce stress. Further detailed “caffeine usually blocks adenosine receptors from activating sleep processes, it also prevents the receptors from reacting to, and causing a stress response” (Helschien). The adenosine receptors are what allows for your brain to react with stress but that its blocked preventing it from having stress making you feel relieved and increase your mood. Helschien stated, “dopamine produces the euphoric and pleasant feelings that people often associate with coffee”. Therefore, the main component is dopamine which creates this feeling of comfort to people and decreases the levels of stress.

  1. Mood Booster

Dr. Raphael Bergman discussed this idea that when you wake up your mood is down  but as the day goes on it increases and some people have noticed that caffeine helps them increase their levels faster. However, it could also help with anxiety “by measuring various behavioral responses such as shoaling, immobility, erratic movements, and the detection of jumping in response to various stimuli such as the introduction of pharmaceuticals, visual stimuli, and alarm pheromones” (Alia). In which they test the levels of stress that are found in zebrafish in relation to how it would work among humans. Both correlated to each other on the impact that caffeine had in them.

Leading on to the moment your brain is active and working efficiently it allows for it to react faster, in this case, they would try to act as a stimulus to decrease your levels of stress. The zebrafish reacts as humans would specifically students who use this factor. Therefore, students consume caffeine to reduce stress when presenting, as well as white collars when they are meeting deadlines.

The fact that it increases your mood means that it can affect your mental health too. As it was previously mentioned on how it can boost your mood, it also helps people battling with depression. Studies have “ shown that drinking coffee daily can reduce the risk of suicide by 53%, in both men and women” (Helschien). Therefore, coffee serves a form to boost energy and moods which can save a life when it has been proven to reduce the risk of suicide.

  1. Cardiovascular Diseases

 Furthermore, an experiment that Gaeini, a researcher of nutrition, conducted maintained analysis from a controlled and nonexperimental group of whom had a history of cardiovascular diseases and those who did, did not consume some form of caffeine. The experiment that was conducted presented both sides working respectively to the ends of how it would react to their patients based on medical history. In the experiment it showed how “in the crude models, compared to non-drinkers, coffee drinkers had a significant reduced risk of CVD and HTN by 54% and 41%, respectively” (Gaeini). Also proved that in patients with cardiovasculars  history “moderate coffee consumption is known to decrease risk of stroke” (Gaeini).

In terms of health it has been able to prove that it can decrease cardiovascular diseases. There could be a decrease of cardiovascular diseases  from the studies that show improvements on your health. A study that Medical Scientist had done showed that “a meta-analysis of prospective cohorts, assessing the long term effects of coffee on CVD, reported a significant inverse association in moderate but not heavy coffee consumption” (Gaeini).  In how there is a change as long as they do not take advantage of the dopamine that coffee contains making them addictive and not being beneficial.

Although caffeine consumption could negatively impact your health. It could benefit your health as long as you don’t exceed your limit according to your medical history and body weight mass. The limit all depends on how much your body can take and studies that have been tested prove on patients how it all differs. 

  1. Physical Improvement

Beatriz study works along people who consume and do not consume coffee in relation to their body weight mass with their history. Her study focused more on how the different variables of body weight mass, medical history work along with their physical performance. The “tolerance to the stimulatory effects of caffeine in humans is inconclusive. In variables of cognitive performance, caffeine administration equally improved performance in habitual and non-consumers of caffeine” (Beatriz).  Therefore, it is undependable for factors to always have the same results when every individual is different.

Yet, there are relative findings on the experiment defining more on the effects of coffee reacting to your physical performance. For that there was a pattern that “indicated that the efficacy of caffeine to improve physical performance may be reduced in individuals who consume moderate to high doses of caffeine daily (130-300 mg/day) in comparison to low caffeine consumers (40-50 mg/day)” (Beatriz). The relationship varied but a constant pattern presented how there was an increase as was previously mentioned that your blood pumps faster improving your brain efficiency sending signals to your body functions.

  1. Cons
  1. Mixing

Coffee is a substance that can not only act to benefit the body but can create side effects when mixed. They have similar impacts that some drugs have because of dopamine.  When “combining substances can change the way an active ingredient works. This can increase the effect of that ingredient on your body, make it less effective, or have other unexpected results” (NIDA Blog Team). As coffee gives you a boost and becomes a neurotransmitter it could create negative side effects on your health.

In relation to mixing with alcohol could have the same reaction of having side effects when multiple substances are combined in your system. Additionally, when you are taking medicine there are restrictions on what could be mixed and coffee could react negatively with such mixes with over-the-counter medicine. As was stated by the NYT Upfront, “the effects that are similar to allergy pills of doing their job to make you stay awake but have side effects”. Both allergy pills and coffee are meant to help stay awake but combined it could negatively stress your body and have side effects. 

  1. Conclusion

Coffee is the main source of energy that’s natural and benefits your health. Various never know the effects of coffee unless they encounter a warning point on their medical history or have come to have a conversation with their doctor. They help improve the process of their brain when dopamine, a neurotransmitter, help with their efficacy of their functions when they are sending signals directly to their body. Such signals help improve your memory and help improve your mood. This leads onto the mental health that lowers your stress levels and your blood flowing smoother preventing cardiovascular diseases.  Additionally, improving your physical performance as long as you are not exceeding your limit of consumption that relates to your body weight mass and medical history. Although, it has negative impacts when mixing multiple substances that affect your body functions creates side effects. Therefore, coffee can be beneficial for your health to improve your brain to work efficiently and body functions to work better, yet it is better to consult with your doctor to discuss your medical history to see the impact that it has on your health. 

 

 

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